Suzuki pleads for Honda, BAR help

The former Japanese driver officially unveiled his plans for his Super Aguri Formula One outfit in a press conference in Tokyo on Tuesday, where he announced that he had lodged an entry for the 2006 Formula One World Championship.

But Suzuki admitted that he faced an uphill battle to get his team onto the grid for next season - and claimed it would be impossible without big help from Honda and the BAR outfit.

"On October 26, I submitted the application," he said. "But I will not know if it is approved or not until early December.

"If it is approved I will plan to have an entry confirmation presentation at the end of January or beginning of February.

"But as far as the chassis is concerned there is no way we can compete unless there is help from Honda (and BAR). I'm just hoping that we will have a workforce of at least 100 before the season opener."

Suzuki confirmed that the team will be based in Tokyo, although the race operation will operate out of the former TWR headquarters at Leafield in Oxfordshire.

And although he said a deal was in place for Bridgestone tyres and Honda V8 engines, and the chassis will be called an AGURI, he did not reveal exactly what design the car would be.

It is almost certainly too late for him to design a car from scratch and although there has been speculation that he would run customer versions of next year's BAR008 chassis, that will not be straightforward because of limitations in the Concorde Agreement.

However, Suzuki dropped several hints that the customer route was his likely only option to make it onto the grid next year - because to do so would need big help from Honda and BAR.

"I have made several trips to Britain in the last few months and as far as the paperwork (application) is concerned I am clear," he said. "But there is so little else we can do without Honda's assistance."

Suzuki did not reveal who the backers of the project were, although he did make reference to the fact that he is CEO of a firm called A Company Ltd., which will run the operation.

Speaking about the budget for the team he said: "It is never enough in F1."

However, it is likely that the team are not short of finance. The fact that they have willingly lodged their entry for next year, with major doubts that they can actually make it onto the grid in time, means they have accepted that there is a high chance of losing $12 million of their $48 million deposit if they delay their entry until 2007.

In terms of drivers, Suzuki confirmed that negotiations were ongoing with Takuma Sato but made no mention of the other men linked with the second seat - Anthony Davidson or Adam Carroll.

Suzuki claimed that he originally started thinking about the F1 project in February of this year, but momentum behind the plans only picked up in September, around the Brazilian Grand Prix time, when Sato's sacking by BAR was confirmed.